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Swell Supporter

I had a sort of idea. Mind if I introduce a character who isn't a pilot, but instead just a mechanic who works on the mechs? Obviously wouldn't go into battle, so not a particularly real unit (I did have an off-hand thought about the possibility of if action ever made its way close to HQ, she could have a chance of becoming a casualty though), but just something that might be fun to RP a bit.

---Miyu had a bit of a big head after being the so successful in her last mission. She was mostly congratulated, but she caught the dirty looks from Xan. "Looks like someone's jealous they aren't the only popular girl around here, huh?" Miyu thought to herself. In the back of her mind, Miyu knew it was mostly beginner's luck that aided her, but seeing as she preferred feeling good about herself to self-doubt, she mostly pushed those thoughts back.

Vivacious Visitor

I had a sort of idea. Mind if I introduce a character who isn't a pilot, but instead just a mechanic who works on the mechs? Obviously wouldn't go into battle, so not a particularly real unit (I did have an off-hand thought about the possibility of if action ever made its way close to HQ, she could have a chance of becoming a casualty though), but just something that might be fun to RP a bit.

Vivacious Visitor

Two Wings are sortie'd for regular air patrols, but since they're not near the front lines or any major bombing targets it's used more as a time to get in some maneuver training and target practice than a time to search for enemies. Col. Hannemann leads the pilots in their patrols, and is the one who initiates the training during said patrols. Miyu, Sophia, and Kycilia are among the pilots who participate.

Back at base, several mechs are scrambled on an emergency sortie to intercept an enemy recon craft before it gets over the base. With Paula in the lead, Xan as her wingman, and Ophelia and another pilot flying overwatch, they climb to intercept the large drone.
They weren't warned soon enough, though, and the base and its' defenses are surveyed by the recon craft before the mechs can reach it. Calling out a warning to the intercepting pilots, Ophelia tells them that sometimes the recon drones are rigged to explode if a mech gets too close, and often take down the nearby mech with them when they do.
Since it's already too late to stop it from surveying the base, and there isn't really anything near the base except pine forests, Paula and Xan can take their time shooting it down, firing short bursts at range. One fires where it is, the other sprays their burst where it could evade to, and soon enough they've shot off a wing. It explodes long before it hits the ground, but much too far away to damage anyone.
To Xan's dismay, she's informed that recon drones, since their enemy seems to treat them as expendable tools rather than airframes, do not count as kills unless they're shot down in a battle where either piloted enemy craft or piloted friendly craft are also shot down.

Once she's back on the ground, Ophelia finds Millie and, sitting her in the base's mech simulator, begins going over the basics of flying a mech. Progress is fairly slow, but since Ophelia can tell Millie's genuinely trying her best she tries to be patient.

Vivacious Visitor

Early the next morning, the squadron is scrambled. In the emergency briefing, given by the base commander to every member of the 499th, they're told that a massive force of enemy bombers, fighter mechs, and various strike craft is incoming, and seems to be heading towards the capital. If even 50% of the bombers make it through, there's a large chance the Emperor will be killed, along with the rest of the Imperial line, and the Empire will be forced to surrender unconditionally. Obviously, this cannot be allowed to happen, and so every combat craft capable of engaging the enemy force is being scrambled to engage.
The pilots are instructed that time is of the essence, and that they must take off as soon as their mechs are fitted with the extra fuel tanks to make the trip to the intercept point. Even some of the wounded pilots will fly, and every mech of the 29 the squadron has will go.
Taking off in ragged groups, the stragglers catch up to the lead mechs by using their afterburners, where they're instructed to form echelons. With two wings to an echelon, the squadron is a few mechs short of three full echelons. The lead echelon is lead by Col. Hannemann, the third by Ophelia, and the second by Paula.
Their callsigns are Boreas 1 for Col. Hannemann, Zephyr 1 for Paula, and Notus 1 for Ophelia. Under Paula, Zephyr 5 is Miyu, Zephyr 6 is Sophia, Zephyr 7 is Xan. Under Ophelia, Notus 2 is Kycilia and Notus 7 is Millie.
They climb, and on the way they join with several other large groups of mechs, also scrambled to intercept the massive assault force. As the sun peeks over the horizon, a call goes out - enemy spotted, dead ahead. The pilots ready themselves, some of the more superstitious ones beginning personal good luck rituals.
Then, before the sun has passed the horizon, the two huge formations meet, and the sky is clogged with smoke, steel, and flames. Almost instantly, the battle turns into a chaotic struggle, where despite the hundreds of craft everything becomes a duel. Commanders become simple pilots, and rank is meaningless. Only skill and luck matter now.

Alice Hannemann loses herself. She doesn't black out, exactly, but everything becomes a blur. She's in the zone. Maneuvering, firing, evading, it's all a blur until a jarring shock rattles her in her mech and all she can see is reddish-orange. In an instant, her vision clears, and she realizes she was too close when something exploded. Quickly checking her mech's diagnostics, she sees that it's crippled and cannot fly anymore, and then checking the altimeter and artificial horizon reveal she's tumbling down from the battle. She decides to wait for a clear chance for a safe ejection, and absentmindedly hopes she gets one before she hits the ground.

Ophelia, unlike Hannemann, does not lose herself. Instead, she is hyper-aware of herself and her surroundings. Time seems to go in slow motion as the tracers fly and the battle begins. She gets on the tail of an enemy mech, and pursues it relentlessly until it's pouring a deep black smoke from its' engines. Then, she switches targets to another enemy, and does the same. In her cockpit voice recorder, her voice quietly repeats "I am a leaf on the wind" time and time again. Then, after a while, silence.

Kycilia waits until others begin firing, and then starts firing too. During the initial head-on pass at the enemy, she doesn't manage to inflict noticeable damage on any enemy, but she doesn't get hit either. She loops around, trying to get on the tail of an enemy mech, but finds that they've done the same, and so she immediately begins turning some more, hoping to be able to get behind them this time. She's hit, and one is on her tail, but she gets on the tail of an enemy, and does her damnedest to take the mech down. Luckily, before she takes too much damage from the enemy on her tail, he explodes. She shouts out a thanks, and then devotes her entire attention to the enemy in front of her. When it vanishes, she switches to another. Then another. Then she doesn't.

Close to the nose of their formation, Paula is one of the first to begin firing. Remembering their mission, she targets the bombers, and manages to destroy one's left hand engines during the initial head-on meeting. Continuing through the bomber formation, engaging every bomber she can, she's almost certain she gets smoke from several, and may have even downed one or two. Right as she passes through the last of the formation, an enemy mech begins chasing her. She tries her best to shake him, but can't quite get rid of him.

Xan, still bitter from last time, takes up a position near the edge of the fighting, looking to swoop in on already damaged or crippled mechs or bombers and finish them off, hoping for a lot of kills. This seems to be working fairly well, and with each victory she gets more confident. After several 'kills', she decides to go in and get a few all to herself, and goes in and makes attacks from below several bombers. She even manages to shoot down two or three before two enemy mechs begin pursuing her. After ten seconds or so of pursuit, one has disappeared, but she can't shake the other.

Miyu tries to cover Paula initially, but after Millie nearly crashes into her she decides to go after the bombers instead. She makes several attacks on several different bombers, badly damaging several, before a combination of escort mechs and defensive gunnery makes her position untenable, and she's forced to flee back into the main fighter battle, where she hopes that a friendly mech will help her out.

Sophia, not quite recovered from her memories of her own death, isn't quite at her full ability. She doesn't shoot quite soon enough, and only damages an enemy she could've destroyed. She doesn't evade quickly enough, and takes hits she could've dodged. She still makes them pay, and gives worse than she gets, but in such a battle it isn't enough.

Millie, determined to do better this time than in her first battle, ends up climbing too rapidly, stalling out, and diving down on the enemy as they turn to re-engage her allies. She fires at several enemies, spraying and praying, but soon decides to focus on a single enemy mech. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't notice a second enemy mech with an intersecting flight path until it's too late. She glances forwards, rather than at the enemy mech she's chasing, just soon enough to be aware of the imminent collision before it happens.

With the sun well into the sky, the last of the Imperial mechs retreat from the attacking formations. They've fought hard, and given as well as they got, but it just wasn't enough, and over 70% of the enemy bombers are still there, on their way to the capital city. Less than half of their escorts remain, but with the intercepting formation as badly mauled as they are they're relying on the enemy's ignorance of their lack of backup to avoid being completely annihilated.

As the battered remnants of the 499th returns to their base, the highest-ranked officer left flying, Ophelia White, asks everyone left to please sound off. Confirming her worst fears, she doesn't hear Col. Hannemann. This has a major, obvious effect on her. She clearly cared for Alice quite a bit, and the presumed death of the Colonel is a massive blow to her. It's slightly lessened as she hears the voices of other survivors, but she's still audibly upset.

As the remaining mechs sound off, wing by wing, number by number, the pilots realize how many friends and comrades they've lost. Most of the squadron is gone. Of the 29 mechs that took off, 9 sound off on the way home.
Of the named pilots, only Paula, as Zephyr 1, and Miyu, as Zephyr 5, survived the battle. As they fly, two of the surviving mechs, including Paula's, are forced to break formation and make emergency landings due to battle damage. From their safely-landed mechs, Paula and the other pilot radio that they'll be back to the airfield as soon as they can.
Arriving back at the airfield, the mood is grim. Not only did most of the mechs and their pilots not return, it all may well have been for nothing - there were other squadrons on the way to intercept the formation later, but as it is it seems quite likely that they'll be forced into an unconditional surrender, making today's efforts pointless.
The survivors, not having much else to do, wait anxiously in the painfully empty briefing room for news on their comrades. In the evening, a truck arrives, and when it parks two people get out of the back - Paula and the other pilot. Then, all nine survivors wait in the briefing room for news.
Late that night, the base intelligence officers enter the briefing room and begin speaking.

"We've analyzed all the flight data recorders we could get from the battle, and from what we gathered, we're almost certain that the following information is accurate. We will be detailing the fate of the missing pilots, alphabetically, beginning now. If anybody does not want to hear this, there is a casualty list outside the barracks that will be updated with the most recent reports from recovery teams and medical units."
"Adams, Millie. It is believed that she inadvertently struck an enemy airframe and was killed in the ensuing explosion."
Other names follow, of course, butt of the named characters, the following was said:
"Hannemann, Alice. It is believed that her airframe was critically damaged by an exploding bomber, and it is considered likely that she managed to eject before her airframe struck the ground"
"Hulthar, Xan. It is believed she was pursued and fired upon by an enemy airframe until her own airframe was no longer flight-capable. Considering the damage taken, it is considered unlikely for her to have ejected before her airframe struck the ground."
"Minovsky, Kycilia. It is believed that she was shot down by an enemy airframe. Judging by the damage received, it is considered likely that she ejected before her airframe struck the ground"
"Secura, Sophia. It is believed that her airframe was critically damaged by a number of enemy hits over time gradually wearing down her airframe's capabilities. Judging by the damage received, it is considered unlikely for her to have ejected before her aiframe struck the ground"

As the night goes on and turns into morning, the fates go from 'Missing' to a more concrete 'Killed' or 'Wounded'. There are a lot more of the former than the latter.
Of the named characters, here's how they ended up:
Millie Adams: Killed (Collided with enemy aircraft)
Miyu Dojima: OK
Alice Hannemann: Wounded [Discharged] (Damaged by explosion, ended up losing all of her left leg and most of her right leg)
Xan Hulthar: Killed (Shot Down)
Kycilia Minovsky: Wounded [Discharged] (Shot down by enemy, was severely burned on her left torso, left arm, and portions of her face)
Paula Ortega: OK
Sophia Secura: Killed (Shot Down). This was displayed for almost an hour before the relevant officers were informed of Sophia's situation, and it was then changed to OK (Shot Down)
Ophelia White: OK

The squadron is also informed that, due to casualties, they will be moving by truck to Harnam Airfield, where they will be merged with the remnants of several other squadrons to form the 921st Interceptor Squadron. The war will continue, as two members of the Imperial Family survived.
What, exactly, the shattered Air Corps. is supposed to do against any further large formation raids is unclear, but the new Emperor's orders aren't - "Bleed them for every inch, never surrender! Make them pay for everything they've done!".

I hope everyone's alright with how this went! I gave everyone some more freedom with how exactly their characters final moments were (If they had final moments), so I hope you're all OK with that!

Vivacious Visitor

Xan was furious, she was woken up early cause there was some kind of Emergency meeting, end of the empire bullshit. She barely had time to do her makeup and on top of that, her commanding officers still hadn't realized what an amazing asset she was.

She grumbled to herself as her squadron flew into what seemed like the jaws of death. Xan could care less.

Those fucking ungrateful bastards she muttered to herself she was going to show them what a real ace pilot looked like.

Pressing herself hard against her seat she cracked her knuckles. If kills were what they wanted kills were what she was going to get... however kills were going to happen a lot faster another way.

She pressed the brake, lagging behind her squadron. Time to clean up.

She dodged in and out of her cohorts who had done most of the heavy lifting as she expertly made the finishing blows on a couple of bombers.

A smoking enemy mech hurdled past her, a single missile easily dealt with whatever was left.

She felt high, this was honestly too easy!

pressing hard on the throttle she dove into the thick of battle, pulling hard to the left she caught a bomber off guard firing an array of bullets into the engine, the explosion reflected in the emerald green of her visor and she cackled.

If only the other girls could see her now!

She focussed in on another bomber her mind only on kills, behind her two mechs appeared, seconds later her radar caught sight of them, but it was too late.

Shit! she yelled, pulling her mech into a steep dive trying to avoid the other ships. Although she was caught off guard this was nothing she couldn't handle.

Rockets from the two mechs trailed behind her

Pulling out of the dive she lead her craft into a miraculous roll, the homing rockets unable to match her trajectory, sputtered and exploded leaving a fiery path in her wake.

God what idiots, she laughed.

A bullet whizzed past her windshield.

She froze.

Another 50 lodged themselves into her engine, the two mechs had foreseen Xans evasive manoeuvres and had positioned themselves in prime targeting position.

Xans eyes widened unable to believe she had been outplayed.

Hundreds of bullets penetrated Xans ship from all angles.

Mech smoking, she plummeted to the nearby forest below as she hurriedly tried to press the eject button. However it was too late, she was shot like a cannon into the hard forest floor as her mech exploded hundreds of yards away. Before she even hit the ground she had lost consciousness.

Avid Affiliate

sophia was flying her mech shooting down enemy mechs and watching as each mech blew up the nude enemy female pilots dead or injured bodies fell from the sky, she started to get a little horny watching it rain sexy girls and seeing many impact on other mechs or get sucked into engines, or occasionally get blown apart from stray lasers. but a skilled pilot came behind her and started shooting, Sophia tried to evade but the enemy girl was pretty skilled, eventually her engines took too much damage and knowing her memories would be transferred to another clone, so she would basically live on again, she turned around and flew straight for the nude enemy in front of her, the enemy watched in horror at what her fate would be, as the 2 mechs collided, they both ejected and as they were falling, Sophia grabed her pistol an took aim at the nude enemy, taking a couple shots the nude enemy was shot twice in her exposed nipples and once n her pussy killing her. then the both hit the ground. Sophia awoke injured from the fall noticing her bra and thong had been torn off by branches, and her dead enemy laying with her pretty dead face in Sophia's large tits. Sophia started to feel the dead body a bit but then noticed some looters walking around, stripping and fucking and collecting up the bodies of the hundreds of dead female pilots littering the ground. The looters walked over to the injured Sophia and Sophia noticed the injured and nude Xan the Looters left behind, clearly not interested in her body. the grab the dead foe off of Sophia and proceed to fuck her pussy, ass, tits, and mouth. after an hour of her whole body being fucked and covered in semen, the Looters end with one fucking her pussy and feeling her big tits, one fucking her mouth and just when she is about to orgasm, they snap her neck and she goes black. they take her body and throw it onto the pile of other lovely dead or injured pilots, and drive away leaving Xan and other undesired nude pilots to be devoured by the local wildlife. Sophia soon wakes up in a tube naked, gets out, puts on her uniform and returns to base as the 3rd Sophia clone. "more deaths and fucks to come" she thought to herself.

Club Regular

Xan was furious, she was woken up early cause there was some kind of Emergency meeting, end of the empire bullshit. She barely had time to do her makeup and on top of that, her commanding officers still hadn't realized what an amazing asset she was.

She grumbled to herself as her squadron flew into what seemed like the jaws of death. Xan could care less.

Those fucking ungrateful bastards she muttered to herself she was going to show them what a real ace pilot looked like.

Pressing herself hard against her seat she cracked her knuckles. If kills were what they wanted kills were what she was going to get... however kills were going to happen a lot faster another way.

She pressed the brake, lagging behind her squadron. Time to clean up.

She dodged in and out of her cohorts who had done most of the heavy lifting as she expertly made the finishing blows on a couple of bombers.

A smoking enemy mech hurdled past her, a single missile easily dealt with whatever was left.

pressing hard on the throttle she dove into the thick of battle, pulling hard to the left she caught a bomber off guard firing an array of bullets into the engine, the explosion reflected in the emerald green of her visor and she cackled.

If only the other girls could see her now!

She focussed in on another bomber her mind only on kills, behind her two mechs appeared, seconds later her radar caught sight of them, but it was too late.

Shit! she yelled, pulling her mech into a steep dive trying to avoid the other ships. Although she was caught off guard this was nothing she couldn't handle.

Mech smoking, she plummeted to the nearby forest below as she hurriedly tried to press the eject button. However it was too late, she was shot like a cannon into the hard forest floor as her mech exploded hundreds of yards away. Before she even hit the ground she had lost consciousness.

Vivacious Visitor

After a few days of rest, a single six-wheeled truck arrives to pick up the nine pilots. As they climb in, they see that it's evidently already collected pilots from a few other bases, since there are 13 people wearing pilot's uniforms in the back. Departing from their base, leading them is a four-wheeled vehicle with a machine gun on top, then their truck, then another empty truck for more pilots at further bases, then a four-wheeled missile wielding AA vehicle, then another machine gun vehicle.
It's evident that some of the pilots from the other bases received more info than our girls, since they seem to know the path the little convoy's taking. They say it's going through the forest the massive air battle that most of their comrades were killed in was over. Apparently, they say, the reason for the three Army vehicles escorting them is because of reports of not only lawless banditry taking place, with armed gangs attacking vehicles traveling through the forest, but also large, person-eating wolves that don't wait until their prey is dead.
This talk, of course, spooks several of the pilots, who become obviously nervous as they enter the forest.

Apparently, they weren't told everything, because a few hours after they entered the forest the AA vehicle fires off several missiles. Suddenly, the vehicle explodes in a fireball, and the convoy suddenly accelerates, trying to find a safe place from the attack. Unfortunately, they don't make it, since the next casualty is the lead four-wheeler, destroyed by a mech's gunfire. The two trucks following it slam on their brakes, and everyone inside them immediately bails out and flees into the woods a short distance.
None of them are hit, but the two trucks are destroyed and burning by the time the enemy mechs stop their flyovers.
Returning to assess the damage, all 22 pilots, plus the 4 drivers and co-drivers of the trucks return from the forest to inspect their own vehicles and the vehicles of their Army comrades.
Nothing from the trucks can be saved, but as they pull the sole survivor from the lead vehicle, a wounded redhead, the tail vehicle shows up. They have the only working radio, and say they've been calling for help since the AA vehicle opened fire. Apparently, there were two survivors from the AA vehicle, both burned to various extents, who they picked up and put in their vehicle before heading onwards.
The uninjured soldiers hop out of their vehicle, and explain that since they have rifles and plenty of ammo, they'll take the radio from the vehicle, as well as the machine guns from the two four-wheeled vehicles, and set up a defensive perimeter. The last working vehicle will take the wounded and as many pilots as can fit inside, and speed as fast as it can to the nearest outpost to get help.
The driver of the vehicle loads the three wounded, and then says that the vehicle can fit four more inside and seven outside. It won't be a comfortable fit, but after a bit of trying the fully loaded vehicle speeds away.
Three of the girls from the 499th were in the vehicle, but not any of the named ones. Miyu, Paula, and Ophelia, along with 8 other pilots and 3 infantry soldiers, begin building fortifications around the wrecked transport trucks.
It'll be a long night, and with two machine guns, three rifles, and 11 pistols of firepower, it may be a lot of the defender's last. Nonetheless, they have no other choice.
One pilot is on the radio, calling out for help. The rest have been assigned to the soldiers, so the trained soldiers can instruct them during the coming fighting. Two of the 'squads' are focused on the machine guns, with the infantry on the machine guns, their rifles given to the most apt pilots, and the rest with pistols, all in defensive positions scanning the forest in front of them, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
The third 'squad' is kept in the center as a reserve, and also an extra layer between the outside and their only radio.

As the sun sets, they hear howling... and gunshots. It seems looters and bandits, as well as the large wolves, are coming for them. This will be a long night...